Have yourself a deerest merry Christmas
by EmbraceYourSun
Summary: Ginny and her friends are in the woods, following my main story, and Harry is there, too. Why not forget everything around you and follow your heart?


Ginny couldn't remember the last time she wouldn't spend Christmas at home. If she would've been honest, she missed the busy house at this time of year the most. But with George in therapy, her mother probably had too much to worry about and wouldn't have the energy to pretend to be happy.

And besides, sitting in this old house in the woods was kind of the only place she could imagine being right now. When Luna, Neville and herself agreed on hunting Rookwood, she thought they would find him right away. But apparently neither Hermione nor Harry knew what to do.

They sat together in the living room where Neville, Hermione, and Harry were around the coffee table looking at a map. Ron was lying on the sofa and played with a snitch. Luna was walking around the room and looked at the old paintings on the wall. Since they didn't move, Ginny figured they must've found an old muggle residence.

Ginny herself sat at the window, half hidden by the curtain and watched the snow fall outside. It was almost Christmas, normally her favorite season. But she just couldn't get in the mood. When she heard Hermione laugh at something, she moved a little to see what was happening in the room.

She caught Harry's eye who was- not laughing but rather smiling- and tried to smile at him. Her heart skipped a beat. Though she hadn't told him that Chris and she have broken up, she couldn't help but feeling more drawn to Harry than she had ever been.

But Ginny couldn't smile, for weeks now it seemed, the made no effort whatsoever to find Rookwood or any clue that could bring them to him. Ginny sighed, broke eye contact with Harry, and looked out the window again.

If that was how they were hunting for Horcruxes, no wonder it took them several months to find them, Ginny thought while she wondered if her family was well. Especially George… He had a hard time and she wouldn't dare to think he would be just fine ever again.

"This is frustrating" Ron announced while lying on the old sofa. He was looking more miserable as normally, but Ginny could remember seeing him worse. This time he suddenly returned home, all upset and locked himself into his room. But he was gone before Ginny could ask him what was going on with him and the next time she saw him was at the battle in Hogwarts.

But she could understand him. She herself was frustrated, she thought she could spend Christmas at home, making it better for George until then, but she was wrong.

Ginny snapped her attention back outside the window. The field in front of the house was covered in a blanket of white. It was just beautiful, and Ginny wasn't too sure if she just imagined it but she thought she had seen a deer in the distance. She sat up to see more clearly, but couldn't seem to find anything.

"What are you even doing, Luna?" Ron tried again after nobody recognized him.

"I'm trying to let the Christmas spirit in" she chanted as she danced around the room.

Before he could say anything else, Hermione shot up.

"Oh my god, I almost forgot" she said and looked around in horror.

"Doesn't really matter" Ron said and looked at her soothing.

Ginny was still hidden behind the curtain, hoping she wouldn't get talked to. She wasn't feeling very happy about being apart from her family, somewhere in the woods and not really knowing what to do. Of course she knew the importance of this and that she decided herself to come along.

When she talked about it with Hermione a few days ago, she didn't seem to understand her. Nobody did and so they assumed Ginny didn't have "the right" to be upset.

"I don't think we should lose track of our mission here" Ginny stated.

"We could at least decorate a bit" Hermione said and looked around.

And without waiting for an answer, she got her wand out and conjured up some Christmas decoration. Soon Luna and Neville joined her. And though Ginny didn't want to admit it, she looked forward to celebrating Christmas.

"We should concentrate on finding Rookwood" Ginny insisted.

"But it doesn't hurt to get on with our life, no matter what" Harry answered and smiled at her.

Maybe he was right. Ginny sighed, smiled and helped her friends decorate the little room. It looked marvelous, she didn't know how Hermione managed to do it, but a thin fir made its way from the corner of the room up the wall and the vines covered the roof. Christmas ornaments in every possible color hung all across the room and Neville hung a few mistletoes. Ginny made sure to remember where they were, so she wouldn't get caught underneath them. But it seemed like they were changing their position every now and then.

Hermione lit a few candles on the coffee table and Ginny went over to the little kitchen. She searched the shelves for food and found the ingredients for a cake. She waved her wand around and the ingredients started to mix together.

"Lucky we have Ginny around this time" Ron stated as she entered the living room again. She raised her eyebrows, a question on her lips but Harry appeared next to her.

"Hermione can do a lot, but cooking is not one of her skills…" he laughed seeing the look Hermione gave him.

Ginny laughed along, until she felt Harry's lips on her cheek. She caught her breath and felt blood rushing to the place his lips were still meeting her skin- for longer than appropriate. His hand held her arm and she felt his breath on her neck. This was different than the one time they kissed at the Burrow, gentler and less aggressive. However it made her feel dizzy just like it did before.

"Mistletoe" he whispered as he let go. When Ginny looked up to see if someone had been watching them, she saw that they were all minding their own business. Maybe they were just pretending to do so but Ginny couldn't believe they'd just go with that… especially Ron.

She turned around and got back into the kitchen to see if she could catch herself there. In her head a Christmas song played, she knew she had heard somewhere but couldn't think of when or where. The lyrics wouldn't pop into her head.

She almost jumped when Hermione entered to see if she needed some help.

"You okay?" she asked when she saw Ginny's reaction to her appearance.

"Yeah… I just… Am fine" she managed to mumble while she looked for her cake. "I'm just so happy we are kinda celebrating Christmas"

"Me too… I mean we all know how much you care for Christmas" she said with a smile as if she wanted to say that especially someone who was in love with her knew that.

"Yeah… Not a big deal, though" Ginny said as she waved her wand to remove the cake from the oven.

"Yeah, right" Hermione laughed. "I've seen your reaction to Harry's kiss"

And with that she was out of the room. So they did pretend they hadn't seen she thought as she watched the cake fume in front of her.

"That smells awesome" Ron shouted into the kitchen.

Ginny smiled. Obviously Ron had something against everybody- except for Harry- being with her. What a funny thing to do of him… However that has always been a problem to Ginny that Harry was her brother's best friend and she couldn't imagine him being okay with the two of them being more than just friends.

She felt the need to go for a little walk, to clear her mind from the charming chaos she was feeling. Her cheeks were hot and she hoped the cold snow would also cool her down.

"I'll just get some air" she said as she put on her jacket and rushed to the door.

All eyes were on her, questioning what she needed to go for a walk right now, but the most piercing pair of eyes were those of Harry. He almost looked worried

"I'll come along" he simply stated and without waiting for permission, he was next to her, closing the door behind them.

"You don't have to do this" she said as she walked towards the woods were she thought she had spotted the deer before.

"But I wanted to" he simply stated and resembled her pace.

Ginny didn't know what to talk about with him and so they simply walked through the woods. The only thing they could hear was their steps and owls crying into the afternoon.

"Well…" she started, a question burning into her brain so deeply, she just needed an answer to "You remember our dance at the wedding?"

He hesitated for a second but kept on walking next to her. "Of course"

"And the second before… You know, we got interrupted"

"Yeah" he said and was now looking at her.

"What do you think would have happened if they hadn't come" she wanted to know but didn't look up to him.

It wasn't until she went a few steps further she recognized he wasn't there next to her. She turned around and caught him staring at her.

"What do you think would've happened?" he said quietly as she came walking back to him.

"I don't know..." she said equally quiet. She was only a few steps away from him.

"We could… Reconstruct the evening" he simply said, a hint of a smirk on his face.

"We were… Dancing as far as I can remember" Ginny said and Harry reached out a hand to her. She took it and in the middle of nowhere they danced around to a melody none of them could hear. They were turning in circles, Ginny's head was on his shoulder and she could see snow falling around them in thick cotton crystals.

"And then…" he breathed as he gently removed his head from her shoulder. He held her closer so she had no escape. He leaned closer and closed his eyes, Ginny's heart beat fast against his chest and if she knew any better, she would think she could faint any moment. There it was again, this feeling of complete satisfaction, like the world would stop turning and the snow around them would hesitate in their movement.

He was only inches away from her and she could once again feel his breath against her skin. The sensation in her stomach grew and she couldn't wait for the moment their lips would finally meet. But there was a sound that caught their attention. They snapped their heads away from each other, not yet letting go, trying to locate where the sound had come from.

Another moving behind a tree. Now Harry let go of Ginny and grabbed his wand. He demonstrated her to be quiet as he looked around to see who or what was there. Ginny was the first to spot the deer in a little distance. She wasn't too sure if he could see them too, but when she grabbed Harry and pointed at him, she could swear the deer was looking straight at them.

She didn't know why, but Ginny wanted to follow him. Before he could stop her, Harry found himself following her following the deer. He turned around and walked away from the two and before they knew, the deer was standing next to a roe deer.

Ginny held a hand in front of her mouth to not loudly 'aw' at the sight and Harry next to her grabbed her hand and squeezed it. The little deer family made its way deeper into the woods and Ginny didn't know why but felt like it was a really intimate moment she had shared with Harry.

However, it had interrupted an (almost) kiss once again. Suddenly she felt really awkward and embarrassed about it and wanted, more than anything to go back right now.

"We should probably-" Harry started

"Yeah… Let's go back" she said, let go of Harry's hand and moved back towards the shack were their friends waited. They didn't talk the whole way back, but Ginny was more than happy to know, that Harry was still feeling torn to her.

When they arrived at the shack, Hermione, Ron, Luna and Neville had lit more candles and the day turning to evening made the light shine warmly and inviting. This would be a contemplative Christmas.

At the door, Ginny took a deep breath, grabbed Harry's head and planted a kiss on his lips. It was a quick kiss but Ginny but all her affection in it. When she parted from his lips, she looked into his perplexed face. He did not expect this.

"Mistletoe" she laughed and entered the house before he could see that there hadn't been any mistletoe above them.

Maybe this time, she thought, after their mission, they could work things out.


End file.
